Archive for the ‘GAMES’ Category
November 10, 2009 – 11:43 pm
Sick in bed, twingey headaches zapping all motivation to do real work.
In any case, been obsessing slightly with FF and Square Enix character designs. It’s been a dozen years or so since I’ve actively liked characters by their designers, or rather lately I don’t really bother to check who designed what since I haven’t really liked many characters.
That changed with the Final Fantasy XIII trailer showing Jihl Nabaat. Wowza. It’s been months and I still think she’s gorgeous. And now that it’s almost release time and the site’s been getting more and more updates, I can’t help but fall in love with the gorgeous beautiful art of all the characters. Well, half the characters.
Jihl’s definitely still my favourite, but Yun Fang is way up there too coz she’s got dark hair and dair eyes and is badass. Next would be Gadot, who just oozes charisma. Lightning, I’m not too hot on, but that picture of her riding Odin, that’s an amazing piece of art.
But I think the character I like the most of the FFXIII games, is Noctis. What a beautiful design. Or perhaps I just like the trailer, which is dark and gorgeous. Ah, I can’t help reusing that word over and over. Gorgeous… simply gorgeous. I remember why I love anime and games again.
After a bit of wiki-ing, found out about Square’s chara designers. Nomura Tetsuya did much of the FFXIII work, and FFX and FFX-2 too. I loved Yuna, and although Rikku and Paine don’t appeal as much, their costumes are wonderful. Lightning’s not bad, but I think she’s unfairly crippled because her sexiness got given away to Yun Fang, heh. Yun Fang looks amazing at times, a bit too dark at others. I think I may like Ikeda Nao’s work more. More dynamic for guys, more anime-ish I suppose. Jihl is an amazing creation. Too bad she suffers from inflated chest syndrome.
Been playing FFXII, and I realized that I like the faces for FFXII a lot. Ashe is really pretty. Not hot in the vixen sense, but just amazingly pretty. Don’t like the kids, but Vossler is simply incredible, and Basche as well. The costumes are interesting, but perhaps this is where Ikeda Nao is just better. FFXII was the Vagrant Story team, so it’s not surprising I like the designs and the game system. I loved the directing for Vagrant Story, and FFXII feels similar. I think FFXIII is overacted in a very typical Japanese way and it detracts from my enjoyment (it’s so beautiful and so painful to watch at the same time). Vagrant Story was true art. FFXII holds hints, but unfortunately was not completely free of bad acting direction.
The trailer for FFXIV looks amazing. I love the character design for the main guy in that. And surprise, it’s by the FFXII team! Minagawa Hiroshi gets kudos for this. Can’t wait! Did you see the detail on his armour?!
In other news (to me), Matsuno Yasumi who was the brains behind Vagrant Story and FFXII has left Square Enix. I wonder if he will create games of that breath and caliber again. Damn you Square for dumbing down FFXII with Vaan! The game woulda rocked with Basche as the hero. Time to play Vagrant Story again.
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June 15, 2009 – 10:06 pm
I’m back! I’m back! I’m back from the dead!!
Thanks to the new FFXIII trailer :D
Okay, I haven’t been watching anime since I found it a chore to wade through the last portion of Xam’d, so there’s been no motivation to post.
Then, two things happened.
1) FFXIII, which piqued my interest like over a year ago because it was the first FF to star a non-traditional female main character, released a new trailer with, oh my god, one of the hottest baddie female characters evar! ^^;;
2) I discovered (and promptly marathoned 9 eps of) Phantom Requiem of the Phantom, a most satisfying anime, which put me in a really good mood.
Anyway, about FFXIII…
This is Lightning. Non-cute, non-mage, female and utterly kickass gunblade-wielding ultra-cool main character. Coolness is good, hence, this is a good and desirable game.
Played the demo, and while the graphics were amazing, I thought the battle system was too anarchic and confusing. The stats were displayed in 3 corners and the damage takes place in the center, which means that I don’t know where to look to take in all the information I need. So I kinda left it at that.
Then, E3 rolled around, and I checked the official site for the new trailer. Which looked very cool.
And then, I saw this.
And this…
And this!!
ZOMG!! Okay I’ve always been a sucker for long hair, but usually it’s long black hair. The woman in this scene though, wow! She’s gorgeous even with the glasses! Man, must be the uniform and the badass attitude :D
But, seriously, after doing the screencaps, I’m looking at these pics and the detail is just absolutely utterly amazing. Look at the hair!! The detail! The individual strands! Look at the renders on the jacket fasteners! Look at the eyebrows! The eyeshadow effect! The graceful arch of the nose, the perfect angle of the jaw, even the minute textures on the lips… Square-Enix really outdid themselves. What an incredible model of the human figure. I can’t get over how real yet idealized it is. In other words, detailed enough to be real, but not realistic. At last, the right balance between CG and anime.
In awe dude, in awe. This is truly a labour of love, and only the obsessed could produce something like this. Suffice to say, I am really looking forward to FFXIII.
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June 21, 2006 – 1:02 am
Just got my hands on the soundtrack to Elemental Master, a very old Sega Megadrive game by the gods of good ol’ 16 bit shoot’em ups, Technosoft.
My brother and I loved this game. It was a vertical shooter, but instead of a ship you controlled some dude who had control over the elements (duh) and thus could fire various projectiles. Each stage you beat, you got a power and a new projectile in your repetoire. After the first stage, you also got a killer homing fairy, heh.
There were 3 absolutely cool things about Elemental Master. First, you could pick your stages, which in effect meant you were fashioning your strategy to beating the game – your elemental abilities determine how you could beat that stage. Next the stages themselves were really imaginative landscapes which presented some mental challenges given the shooting nature of the game itself. Last, the music was freakin’ awesome.
I’m listening to it now, and it’s still awesome over 15 years later. These dudes had talent. I can’t describe how excited I am to finally hear it as it sounded on the Megadrive, as opposed to the shitty squeaks from the gym emulator… bleh.
My favourites are
Like the Wind
Until the End of the Earth
Blood-Stained Lake
Terror of the Glacier
and the “Fatima” track… hehehe… Actually I love them all.
This was an awesome game. The ending was cool too. Every kid should experience the joy of this game! Where are these Technosoft guys now? *sigh*
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